Oligarch actions and influences
Around the world democracy is being deliberately dismantled, reducing the power of the people to decide their future. It is mostly happening slowly and as quietly as possible. It is happening through the consolidation of political and economic power of a very few enormously wealthy elites. They are not hidden or secret. They are billionaires celebrated in the media.
Many of them operate through vast corporate empires, family-owned conglomerates and technology platforms that now dominate most media. Increasingly they shape and control public policy, economies, electoral outcomes, and national priorities.
Like the Robber Barons they control politicians through campaign finance and political donations and now untraceable material presents.
Corruption and bribery used to be old fashioned money, now they just buy you things like Trump’s 747 jet from Qatar. They communicate and coordinate through private financial networks and the internet. Global institutions and elected leaders are secondary and just need to be controlled. Only a few billionaires control companies valued in the trillions of dollars. They now function not just as market giants, but as global power houses with direct lines into governments, militaries and central banks. These billionaires, decide on infrastructure development, defense spending, Artificial Intelligence, AI regulation and digital surveillance.
Oligarchs like Elon Musk, Mark Zukerberg and Jensen Huang, routinely engage with heads of state, lobby for industry specific policies and in some cases get government contracts worth billions. Their power extends far beyond shareholders and consumers. They use their power to shape which laws are made, eliminate regulations which are not favorable to them, determine how technologies are deployed and which civil liberties are allowed or are suspended in times of a declared emergency.
Canadian Oligarch influenced provinces
Canada is often viewed as a bastion of stability but is still vulnerable to Oligarch control.
Canada is home to 67 billionaires (Forbes 2024) who have a combined net worth of $314.4 billion.
Several of these billionaires maintain deep and longstanding relationships with political institutions at the federal and provincial levels. One of the most prominent examples is the Weston family, owners of the Loblaws empire.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Loblaws received a $12 million federal grant to upgrade its refrigeration systems. The grant was given just months after company executives hosted Liberal Party fundraisers. This came after the Westons had already reported record profits.
This begs the question, why were public funds given to a corporation with record profits and huge cash reserves?
The relationship between corporate leaders was exposed showing how preferential access and policy making was made quietly with no public scrutiny behind closed doors. East to west in Canada.
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
The Irving family holds an iron grip on energy, forestry, ship building and the media. For decades they have had powerful influence over the governments of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The clearest example was the federal government’s decision in March 2025 to award a $22.2 billion contract worth $8 billion in the first 6 years to Irving ship building in Halifax to revitalize Canada’s navy.
By not taking bids and eliminating competitors has caused public concern about fairness and transparency. The Irving’s control most of the newspapers in this region, allowing them to shape public opinion and suppress criticism of their business activities. Their power is entrenched in provincial politics and the media.
Quebec
The Desmarais family, which controls the Power Corporation of Canada, has played a quiet but decisive role in shaping national leadership. Former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, former Quebec Premier Jean Charest, and former Ontario Premier Bill Davis were closely linked to the Power Corporation, either through personal associations or direct advisory roles.
The family’s influence has often been exercised through elite networks rather than overt lobbying. Yet it has helped shape economic policy, regulatory approaches, and trade decisions. The Desmarais example illustrates how elite families can embed themselves so deeply into the political establishment that their interests become indistinguishable from national policy.
Ontario
On Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s side, the dominant voices are the GTA land kings.
Silvio De Gasperi’s TACC Group and Michael Rice’s Rice Group both maxed out donations almost the moment Ford quietly doubled Ontario’s contribution limit.
Their freshly purchased Greenbelt land parcels miraculously rezoned, which created $3.2 billion in value for developers with the stroke of a pen.
The Cortellucci and Di Poce families did the same dance around Highway 413. Big cheques were given at fundraisers followed by a provincial route that now cuts straight through their land banks.
The Thomson clan keeps Ford’s media weather sunny through the Globe and Mail while topping up “Ontario Strong” ad campaigns.
Westons and Sobeys quietly max their annual donations in exchange for Ottawa’s grocery profit probe dying on a dusty shelf.
Retail property giants such as Smart Centers and the Real Estate Investment Trust lobby are there too.
Their executives and spouses write personal cheques and in return get fast tracked eviction courts and zoning sweeteners for big box infill.
The Rogers family has long used its telecommunications empire to advance regulatory positions favorable to its business model. The family’s internal conflicts even drew national headlines, particularly after efforts to influence board decisions and executive appointments spilled into public view. While these events were covered as corporate drama, they also revealed the Rogers’ ability to affect political agendas and media narratives, given their ownership of broadcasting platforms.
Political parties have repeatedly courted their favor, knowing that telecom legislation, spectrum allocation, and media regulation are all tied to the family’s corporate interests. Ford’s Bill 5 gives the power to the Premier to set up “special economic zones” completely regulation free zones. Free from any environmental, labor laws and regulations or municipal bylaws protecting the public interest. A free for all for Ontario’s oligarchs to increase profits.
Alberta
Premier Danielle Smith’s ties to Alberta’s energy elite are not just ideological, they are structural.
Her premiership is tightly entangled with oil and gas lobbyists and corporate funded think tanks like the Alberta Enterprise Group, the Manning Centre, and right-wing advocacy outfits like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Her United Conservative Party (UCP) operates as a political instrument of Alberta’s fossil fuel sector, aggressively defending oil sands development and pushing back on federal emissions standards, carbon pricing, and environmental, social, and governance frameworks.
Danielle Smith, answers first to billionaire Murray Edwards, who chairs Canadian Natural Resources and co-owns the Calgary Flames.
Murray hosts private, $500 a plate dinner, keeping the UCP’s quarterly filings flush. Murray, then collects a $330 million public subsidy for his new arena and tailor-made carbon capture tax credits.
The CEOs of Cenovus, Suncor, and Imperial follow a similar pattern, executive donations and third-party ad buys that coincide with royalty breaks, methane regulations pushed to never never land, and a freeze on new renewables.
Pipeline majors like TC Energy and Enbridge channel their influence through what insiders jokingly call the “pipeline caucus,” securing seats on “red tape” reduction panels and directive laden mandate letters for Alberta’s energy regulator.
The attack ad ecosystem winds up with dark-money groups such as Alberta Proud and Buffalo PAC, which spread memes the party cannot legally run itself, because the corporate ban cap sits at $4,300 in Alberta.
This amount is small enough to skirt scrutiny and big enough to keep ministers’ direct lines open. Like Jason Kenny before her, Smith has framed environmentalists and climate scientists as “enemies” of Alberta’s prosperity. Smith’s proposed Alberta Sovereignty Act, aimed at nullifying federal laws she deems hostile to Alberta’s interests, is widely seen as legal cover for refusing federal environmental regulations.
Behind this are some of the most powerful families and energy corporations in Canada, CNRL, Suncor, Cenovus, and others who not only bankroll political campaigns but shape public messaging through slick simulated support populism and media surrogates like Rebel News.
The alignment between Smith’s rhetoric and the far-right populist ecosystem antivax, anti-Ottawa, anti-World Economic Forum is not coincidental. It mirrors a global trend where extractive industries back hyper nationalist movements to block environmental reforms and consolidate regional power under the guise of defending “working class freedom.”
A few dates tie the pattern together. In February 2021, Doug Ford doubled the individual donation ceiling. Within a year, more than 70 percent of Progressive Conservative cash came from cheques over a thousand dollars.
By November 2022, the now infamous Greenbelt land swap leaked, and assessments on the developers’ holdings jumped eight-to-ten-fold overnight. Now again in November 2025 Ford raised the maximum yearly contribution rate from $3,400 to $5,000. This makes Ontario very much like the wild west contribution situation in Saskatchewan.
In April 2023 Smith green-lights Edwards’s arena deal, offloading a third of a billion dollars onto Alberta taxpayers. Through the first half of 2024, almost three-quarters of United Conservative Party donations came from postal codes along the energy corridor, coinciding neatly with methane rule loopholes left untouched and yet more subsidies for carbon capture and storage. Tobacco companies worried about their profits when it became clear cigarettes were killing people by cancer, made filtered cigarettes claiming filters reduced the risks of smoking. Now, that it could not be clearer that oil is the major cause of the climate crisis, oil company executives who are very worried about their profits, came up with the carbon capture and storage propaganda campaign, ripping off the public purse to do it.
Saskatchewan
In a cast of characters across Canada who are controlled and influenced by wealthy corporations, Scott Moe, premier of Saskatchewan looks to be one of the most extreme.
The province’s complete lack of campaign contribution regulations has made it one of the worst jurisdictions in Canada.
Since 2018, the Saskatchewan party has raised over $6.7 million in corporate donations from corporate landlords and oil and gas companies, as well as financial firms and the largest landowner in the province. Many contributions have come from Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba.
Saskatchewan is one of the only provinces that has no donation limits and no provincial residency rules, sending a very strong message to business that public policy is open to the highest bidder.
In a regulatory race to the bottom, fresh disclosures show corporations kicked in $1.6 million during the 2024 election year, equal to 70 per cent of all corporate donations’ province wide. Top cheques came from heavy construction (Kelly Panteluk), equipment dealers (Redhead), and Brandt Industries, the same family empire that hosts private fundraisers for Pierre Poilievre.
Out of province interests can double contribute, make a corporate contribution, then a personal one from every director at the same address. Reformers call it “the Wild West”; the business lobby just calls it Tuesday.
The Moe government on behalf of his corporate supporters is pushing hard against Ottawa’s clean electricity standards and is extending the life of coal power plants to provide affordable and reliable base load power to Saskatchewan residents. Scott Moe wants to repeal the oil and gas emissions cap to create investment certainty and secure the supply of Canadian energy products.
